


Gambler

by zanarkand



Category: Final Fantasy X
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, in-game, pre-game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-10-27
Updated: 2006-10-27
Packaged: 2017-10-14 07:03:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zanarkand/pseuds/zanarkand
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He had an obsession with money that had somehow survived the transition from mortal to fayth to Aeon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gambler

Yojimbo was a gambler. He had an obsession with money that had somehow survived the transition from mortal to fayth to Aeon. He would have nothing to do with anything if that anything did not involve money. He was the only one of the aeons who sold his services to the Summoners who came seeking such assistance. Of course, demanding such a high price meant that not many Summoners wanted anything to do with him, and so his time was spent in the casinos of the dream Zanarkand, gambling away the prices he had let himself be bribed with. Often he ended the night with just a few meager gil notes left tucked away in the pockets of his coat. The people of the casinos expressed their continued amazement at his constant presence night after night, wondering just where he always got such money and how quickly he seemed to lose it.

What did he care? He had no use for money. Like the rest of them, he was simply doing it as a way to pass time. Dreaming was tiring and boring. All of them had learned to dream with just the smallest part of their brain ages ago, leaving the rest of their consciousness open for other things. He needed something else besides the endless dreaming. Going out and gambling-living as a real person-helped to fill the bleakness of his empty existence. Attempts at mortal life. Foolish attempts, but then, they were all foolish for allowing themselves to become fayth. What was a little bit more of idoicity to them?

He was hardly the only one to pretend a piece of mortal life. Shiva had become addicted to the night life of Zanarkand, and could often be found in various clubs around the city, dancing the hours away. Bahamut spent much of his time in the stands at the Blitzball stadiums, watching games and cheering various teams on. Valefor chose to remain in her original form rather than take on a human appearance, and she spent a lot of time flying the skies, watching the city from above.

And so on it went for centuries, every day the same thing, the constant dreaming and bribing and gambling, with nothing ever changing. Like the other fayth, he had long ago given up any hope of ever being freed from the dreaming. He no longer cared; gambling and dreaming had become his life. He did not expect anything more. He was, in some strange way he did not really understand, content. Or perhaps numbed would be a better word.

He had been dreaming for roughly a thousand years when an unusually large group of a Summoner and her guardians visited the cave where his spirit dwelled. There was not anything different about them, not at first. He had no reason to expect any more from them than he had expected from past Summoners. When he challenged to them to a battle and lost within a matter of minutes, he was surprised, and a bit impressed. Yet he chalked it up to their large size and entered negotiations with them.

It was when they managed to out-negotiate and hire him for the lowest bid he had ever accepted that he began to think there was much more to the group than one would first suspect. Perhaps he and the other fayth had been too hasty in quashing their hopes. Yojimbo smirked to himself. Maybe he would leave the casinos alone for a bit and actually stick around the latest group. Whether they had any real worth or not, it certainly promised to be interesting.

Besides, it was not as if he would not be getting gil still. This group certainly seemed to have plenty to spare. And the gil was really all that mattered.


End file.
